Cross-Country, Across the Sea
by Clowncoupons
Summary: After the events of ORAS, Maxie leaves Hoenn to do some soul searching and Archie ends up tagging along with him for some good quality bonding time. Hilarity ensues, quiet reflective moments are had, and there's something to be said about starting over. Hardenshipping. A series of travel ficletts loosely connected together.
1. Marine Tube

**Chapter summary**: Maxie has business in Unova. Archie tags along. Turns out Archie can't go even a few days without talking about the sea.

* * *

Extending his hand to Archie in a sign of peace after the events in Hoenn in the past year was obviously a mistake. Archie clearly had taken it as a sign that they were now inseparable best friends, as if nothing bad had ever happened between them. In another time and place Maxie might have appreciated this if, in that other time and place, Archie wasn't ungodly irritating.

Maxie was only spending a week and a half in Unova, purely on business. But, of course, that didn't stop Archie from insisting on going with him. Or more accurately, showing up all on his own as a "surprise" and then refusing to leave whenever Maxie had something important to do.

Business meeting with fellow scientists? Archie was there. Plotting out his next plan for Team Magma? Archie was there, hovering over his shoulder and pointing out the errors. He even caught Archie lounging on the hotel bed in his room more than once with no explanation as to how he got in.

Though that was Castelia. It wasn't until they boarded the train taking them to Undella Town that Archie pulled out all the stops and started getting directly in his face.

"We're going to Undella Town."

"Correction: _I'm_ going _through_ Undella Town," Maxie said, gesturing to himself, "and_ you're_ following me."

"Y'know what's in Undella town?" When Maxie didn't respond, Archie leaned in front of him. Maxie gave him a look. "The Marine Tube, that's what."

Typical Archie, still only ever caring about water.

"How very fortunate for you." Maxie said, taking out one of the books from his bag and opening it to a random page with no intentions of reading it. "I'm sure you'll have a great time and spend entirely too much money on trash from their gift shop."

There was a moment of silence between them. Archie kicked his feet back and forth, glancing between Maxie and the ceiling covered in garbage ads for all sorts of Unovan products. Maxie was busy staring at the word "sedimentary" and trying not to feed into whatever Archie was trying to pull from him.

"Soooo. I was thinkin'. Yer diary said ya've got a day between that meeting you had with those guys with the newspaper records and whoever yer meetin' in Lentimas."

Maxie looked up at him and narrowed his eyes. "I thought I told you to not to touch my daily planner."

"Should've thought of that before you left it out on the table. Aaanyone could just walk right up and look at it! Ain't my fault."

"Archibald—"

"Anyway, like I was saying," Archie cut him off, "yer free, I'm definitely free…what'dya say we take the day off and go have some fun, eh? Just you and me, hanging out. It's free to get in."

"No."

"Hmph." Archie scowled. "For someone who wanted to bury the hatchet, yer not making much of an effort to start over with me. How're we ever supposed to kiss 'n make up, so to speak, if you're just going to keep runnin' off and ignoring me?" Maxie pressed his lips into a fine line. Archie smiled again. "Well?"

Maxie let out a long, exasperated sigh.

"Very well."

And that was how they ended up wasting the entire day at the Marine Tube.

Small children darted back and forth through the tube, squealing and patting the glass as Frillish swam by. Archie, being the big kid that he was, was right alongside them. His eyes were on a small pod of Wailmer that were passing overhead. He watched them pass gaping in wonder.

"Maxie!" he called out. Maxie was seated on one of the simple metal benches on one side of the tube. He waved and Maxie waved back awkwardly. "Did you see them? Did you see the Wailmer?"

"Yes, they were lovely."

He wasn't really interested in the Wailmer, or any of the other Water-type Pokemon around them. No, he was too busy focusing on the fact that millions upon millions of gallons of sea water was barely contained by the glass surrounding them.

It was stupid to be worried. The glass was ridiculously thick and reinforced so that no Pokemon could penetrate the barrier. But even so Maxie was still feeling very, very uncomfortable. Archie seemed mostly oblivious to this.

"Y'know Max," he said, "they say that Mantine and Sharpedo are related. Isn't that wild?"

Maxie regarded one of the Mantine sliding over the glass to his left, which was opening and closing its mouth. "I find that difficult to believe." Maxie said. "But it's hard to disagree with scientific fact."

"Hahaha! I figured you'd say something like that!"

A group of children led by an adult—their teacher perhaps, or a chaperon—entered the Marine Tube from the Undella entrance and flooded the tunnel. Some crowded the spots on the bench beside Maxie, causing him to shift toward the edge of the seat in an attempt to keep them from touching him.

Meanwhile, Archie seemed to have been placed in his natural habitat. Despite towering over them, he fit in right with the children and went right along with them to the side of the tube once more.

A Sharpedo swam by, scaring the schools of Magikarp out sight. The girls standing around Archie shrieked in surprise and bolted to the center of the tube, holding each other in fear. The children left by the window seemed just as frightened, but held their place. Stupid bravery, Maxie mused.

"You guys are scared of a little Sharpedo?"

There was Archie, hands on his knees, as he hunched down to look the girls in the eyes. Startled, they said nothing nor made any reaction. But a boy spoke up.

"They're really bad! I don't like Sharpedo, they eat people!"

"S'that so." Archie stood up and walked over to the boy. He looked at the Sharpedo, who seemed to be watching them back.

The Sharpedo suddenly sped off and over the top of the tube, a school of Basculin in hot pursuit. It zigzagged away until it swam by Maxie. Archie's eyes followed it until they met with Maxie's. Maxie was expecting him to look smug, as if he was going to brag later about how he'd managed to keep Maxie's attention even out of his element. But Archie's gaze was soft and friendly and didn't seem malicious at all.

"They're not so bad." Archie continued after a long moment. "They just make a few bad mistakes sometimes. Can't blame 'em for something they never meant to happen."

"But why?" The boy pressed on, drawing Archie's attention back to him. "If they don't mean it, why do they bite?"

"Well, they're hungry. And sometimes we look like other things they eat. Like Dewgong and Sealeo. That's why you don't hear about Sharpedo eatin' people. They just take a bite 'n leave." Archie smiled down at the boy, who was now watching the Sharpedo with a new interest. "An accident."

"How do you know so much about Sharpedo anyway?"

"I know because one came up and bit me once." A collective gasp. Some of the children exchanged glances. "Yep. Came right up and took a chunk out of my leg. But he didn't have any plans on coming back."

The boy folded his arms and frowned. "I don't believe you." he said confidently. "Where's your proof?"

A second later the confident look changed to one of shock when, of course, Archie just had to roll up his pant leg and show them that damned scar of his. Maxie had seen it a few times, but the mangled patch of flesh never failed to make him uncomfortable.

"Are you a pirate?" One of the girls spoke up. The others attempted to shush her with a quiet, annoyed, "_Rosa!_"

Archie grinned.

"You bet I am."

The group dissolved into excited chatter, the Sharpedo now forgotten. Archie, however, watched it fondly for another moment. The chaperon Maxie had seen before came in, said something to the children, and then ushered them away. The boy and girl who had spoken eyed Archie, who waved to them, before they continued on. The children on the bench disappeared with them.

Archie took their place.

"It's nice that they bring kids out to this place." Archie said. "They ought to see the seas up close like this. Makes for a better experience."

"You sure seemed to enjoy yourself over there." Maxie said. "Can't ever pass up the chance to show off that scar of yours and make yourself look like a pirate, can you?"

"Haha! Nope."

"Show off."

The two sat quietly as they watched the fish pass by. A Huntail darted out from between two rocks, jaws snapping at a fish. Maxie followed it as it rubbed up against the rocky ocean floor before finding another crevice to dart away into.

"I meant what I said over there."

"Hm?" Maxie looked back at him. That warm expression was back on Archie's face. "What you said about the Sharpedo, you mean?"

"Stuff happens sometimes and you don't always mean it." Archie said. "I don't hate that Sharpedo cause it didn't mean it. And I don't hate you either. 'Cause I know ya didn't mean for it to get that bad back in Hoenn."

Maxie's breath hitched. He stared at Archie in shock.

"You…" he said. "You can't possibly mean that. Not after everything I've done."

"Max, I've known ya for a long, long time now. No matter how much of an evil dictator face you try to put on, yer still just Max." He said. "And the Maxie I know doesn't have it in him to want to bring about the complete and utter destruction of everything we know and love. It was a mistake. I'm not gonna hold it against ya."

Thoroughly shocked, Maxie looked away from Archie and instead focused his attention on the pattern in the floor tiles. How could Archie say something like that, after all they'd been through? After all he'd done? It was absolutely ridiculous. He, of all people, should have been the most angry with him.

When he looked back up, Archie's expression hadn't changed. He wasn't joking. Maxie wasn't sure what to do.

"…Thank you." Maxie said finally. "And I'm sorry. For everything. I know that doesn't make up for anything that happened between us, but—!"

"Hey." Archie said. "S'what friends are for, right? The past is…well, there's nothing we can do about it. It is what it is."

Again, he met Archie's eyes. The same fond expression was there even still. That same fond expression he used to know so well years and years ago. It was hard to believe that not even a year ago they were at each other's throats, that not even a year ago Maxie wanted to throw Archie into a vat of lava and end his sorry existence.

"You really meant that when you said you wanted us to try again, didn't you?"

"Every last word."

Maxie felt his lips twitch into a small smile.

Maybe, just maybe, he could love this man again.


	2. Lumiose Museum

Archie squinted. Then he turned his head to the side and looked at the painting in front of him more closely. Maxie was standing at his side trying to figure out the weird piece in front of them as well.

The piece in question consisted of a white canvas with one side painted entirely in black and a grey stripe down the middle. Though all the other art pieces had been easy to understand, the moment they stepped into the traveling modern art section of the museum, Maxie found himself troubled.

None of the pieces made sense. He could probably do a better job if he attempted it. Not that he was going to say anything about it to Archie, who looked confused beyond words.

"…I don't get this one." Archie said.

"I'm not surprised. I never believed you to be much of an art enthusiast." Maxie said.

"I got the piece downstairs alright." Archie countered. "You know, the one with the old man and the Wingull? That made plenty of sense. This?" he gestured to the piece in front of them, "This doesn't even seem like art."

"That's the nature of modern art, Archie. It doesn't always make sense upon first glance." Maxie said. "We passed a pair of sunglasses and a watch earlier, that was an exhibit. It might not make sense to you, but it makes sense to someone."

"Max, I'm pretty sure someone left those there for shits and giggles."

"_Regardless_, I'm sure you see my point." Maxie said. "If you don't like it that much, why don't you go look at some of the other works?"

"S'not that I don't _like_ it…it's just…" Archie tilted his head to the side again. "I want to know what the hell it's supposed to be."

"Why don't you listen to what the audio guide has to say?" Maxie said, offering the little machine and the headphones. "We got this for free, you might as well put it to good use."

Archie nodded, took it, and put the headphones on.

Silence.

"…Says this piece is called 'Middle Ground'."

Maxie looked back at the painting. "What an…odd choice for this piece." he muttered.

The audio book played on, though all Maxie heard from it was a quiet muffled sound of a woman talking. Archie's eyes darted around the canvas, studying it. His eyebrows furrowed before they rose again.

"Oh, I think I get what it's supposed to be now." Archie said, taking off the headphones and letting them rest around his neck. "It didn't have much to say about the piece itself. Talked more 'bout the artist than anything, but I get it now."

"Do you?"

"Yep."

And that was all Archie said. He started walking off toward another room filled with paintings, leaving Maxie next to 'Middle Ground'. Said person glanced between the painting and Archie before quickly following. He huffed. How could _Archie_, of all people, understand that strange piece of modern art when not even _he_ understood it?

Part of Maxie was wishing he'd forced Archie to stay at the hotel and hadn't agreed, yet again, to go somewhere in public with him under the guise of "making amends" after one of his business trips. Thankfully Archie hadn't worn that ungodly eyesore of a wet suit to the museum, but he still insisted on being irritating in other ways.

"Now wait a moment," Maxie began, catching Archie in front of a lavishly painted beach scene located somewhere in Kalos. The other man turned to look at him, "Suddenly you understand the meaning behind this piece in an instant after we stood there for so long?"

"Yup."

"Somehow I don't believe you."

Archie grinned. "Yer just butthurt that I got it and you still don't."

Maxie looked bewildered. "Excuse me? _I_ understand what it means."

"S'that so." Archie crossed his arms, still smiling. "Alright, smart guy, tell me all about 'Middle Ground'."

Maxie looked back at the piece in question and then at Archie, who was looking pleased with himself. Maxie turned away with a huff.

"I…I'm not required to tell you anything." he said. "And I'd like my audio guide back, if you please."

Archie laughed a rather irritating laugh that bounced off the walls of the room they were in. A young couple on the other side of the room looked at them. Maxie massaged his forehead and groaned.

"See what I mean?" Archie said. "Butthurt."

"I deeply regret allowing you to come with me here." he said. "Why couldn't you have gone to one of the battle cafes? Mindless violence indoors and food seems like something you would have enjoyed."

"Hey, last time we went to a tourist trap, we went somewhere I wanted to go, so I figured we should do somethin' that you wanted to do." Archie said. "'Sides I've never really been to an art museum before. And this one's pretty world famous. Not as much as the castle is–Oh, d'ya think we could go there next?"

"_No_, Archie." Maxie said. "I'm not spending that much on entrance fees after I spent a small fortune on hotel fees. Besides, I wouldn't want you to do something completely idiotic such as sitting on the furniture or knocking down the statues."

Archie glared at him. "Hey…hey! I can control myself!" he said defensively. "I'm not touchin' anything in here, am I?"

"I–"

Out of the corner of his eye, Maxie notice a group of people staring at them. As much as it pained him to withdraw his comeback, he simply cleared his throat and decided to go back to viewing the art. It was better to avoid making a scene. The last thing they needed was attention.

They examined art pieces in silence, though Archie occasionally made a comment and Maxie would nod or add in his thoughts. The Lumiose Museum had an extensive collection of work compared to the museum in Hoenn, which Maxie had visited before. And yet it lacked substantial sculptural works, which made up half of the Hoenn museum.

Kalos was a land steeped in its history, and one couldn't go anywhere without encountering references to it. The paintings, too, each had their context. Maxie found himself drawn more to the easy to historical paintings than the abstract, which Archie seemed more interested in, and perhaps it was because of that reason.

"Hey, here's a painting of the Battle Subway in Unova!" Archie said with a grin, perking up quite a bit.

Maxie glanced at the art in question, which was a depiction of an ongoing battle in said subway. Archie was an easy man to please; the ocean and Pokemon battles being the easiest way to do so. The subway in question, however, looked like a screaming metal death trap if he ever saw one. And how did Pokemon larger than that even fit on the train cars?

"Hm. What a ridiculous concept."

"C'mon, Maxie. It looks _way_ more interesting than the Battle Maison back in Hoenn! And we totally kicked ass there." Archie nudged Maxie a bit with his elbow. "We ought to stop by Unova sometime for a trip to the Battle Subway, huh? Even if it's just to watch."

"If _you_ want to do that, you're more than welcome to." Maxie said. "I have better things to do."

Archie raised an eyebrow., "Like what, spend all day at the Pokeball Factory?" he said. "That place was boring as hell. Ya need to live a little, Max."

"I quite enjoyed the trip. It was very informative." Maxie said. "I never asked you to come with me. You went of your own choice. Also, stop calling me Max."

Archie huffed, but said nothing.

They moved on through the exhibits, passing by various tourists and Kalos natives who chattered on in a language Maxie couldn't understand. Though the majority of the museum was sparsely populated, there was one room which held what seemed to contain every single tourist in Kalos; the red room containing paintings all centered around the theme of the great war.

Despite wanting to see the pieces for himself, Maxie had no interest in entering the crowded room. But of course Archie was a different story and soon Maxie found himself trailing along behind him as he barged his way in.

"Archie!" Maxie said, exasperated, as he was elbowed and shoved by a few of the people around him. "We can always come back later, this isn't necessary!"

"Unlike you I don't want to be here all day." Archie said. "'Sides, they'll be gone in a second. Yer skinny, weave around 'em."

"You complete and utter _buffoon_–!"

A few people shushed him. Maxie turned to glare at them, but complied. It was a shame the museum required it to be so quiet. Archie deserved an earful of complaints at this moment.

He looked around to find Archie in the crowd but, unfortunately, lost the man among the many different people in the room. Archie didn't stand out so much anymore in civilian clothes and a simple beanie hat. As much as he hated Archie's old outfit, it had served one useful purpose of identifying Archie no matter where he was.

And then he spotted Archie among the crowd staring at a large piece that nearly covered the entire wall. Maxie sighed and slowly made his way through the people standing around aimlessly. Archie was regarding the piece with a thoughtful look.

"Kinda familiar, eh Max?"

Maxie glanced over the piece. It was a bit familiar. A man decides to try and control ultimate power for his own selfish goals. But Maxie really wasn't in the mood to talk about this in public yet again. He instead went to examine the sign standing next to the artwork.

"I see the artist took some liberties with his art." he said. "I don't recall the story including the Floette at the time the machine was activated."

"Art doesn't have to be one hundred percent true all the time." Archie said.

"But this is a historical piece. One would think that the artist would have been more interested in staying true to the original story."

Archie looked back at the piece and shrugged. The tourists around them slowly filed out of the room after examining each and every piece within it. Maxie and Archie took their time with the pieces, and Archie always had something to say about all of them. But eventually they decided to move on before another tour group decided to fill in the space.

It wasn't long until they encountered a very familiar painting on their way through the museum.

"Huh. Check it out." Archie pointed to the wall. Looks like we circled right back around to this piece again."

Maxie glanced at the wall. There was "Middle Ground" again, as boring and meaningless as ever. He let out a huff.

"Apparently this museum is smaller than I originally thought. I had a feeling we should have gone left, not right." he said, shaking his head. He glanced up at Archie, who still had the headphones to the audio guide around his neck. "Are you planning to return the audio guide or not?" Maxie said, crossing his arms. "I'd like to hear what it has to say about this…piece."

"Won't do ya much good for this one." Archie said. "All it said was that the artist's a Lumiose native and she's one of the better known modern artists in the area. Also said she likes paintin' in this style."

Maxie held out a hand. Archie made a face, obviously upset that Maxie didn't believe him, but he handed the guide over anyway. Maxie took the time to listen to what the guide had to say about the piece. Which was no more than what Archie had said about it, much to his disappointment.

"That's _all_? That's all this useless guide has to say about this piece?" Maxie said. He took off the headphones and glared at the painting in front of them. "Hmph. And you claim to understand this painting from that information?"

"Nope. I figured it out by myself." Archie said. "Took a bit of starin' and a little guesswork, but I think I've got it."

"Enlighten me, then."

Archie scratched at his beard. "Well, art's about interpretation, right? So bear with me a little here." he said. "See, we've got two completely opposite colors here; White and black. And maybe you could say that they're so different that the bit in the middle," he gestured to the grey line, "is keepin' them separate so they don't rip each other a new one, but I don't think that's what's goin' on. Grey's right in the middle of black and white, so maybe that's the stuff that's the same between both of them."

Maxie squinted at it.

"I suppose."

"And _that's_ the middle ground." Archie continued. He put his hands together. "Two opposing sides compromise right in the middle with a lil' bit of both of them. Sure, maybe there's a stark contrast between 'em. Black's pretty intimidating, real uptight, can't really mess with 'im. White's pretty loose, real friendly, just the opposite. But maybe black doesn't mind not bein' so stiff sometimes when he's playing board games and white likes quiet reading time in his house from time to time in absolute silence–"

Maxie raised an eyebrow.

"You're not relating this to us, are you?"

Archie winked at him. "'Course not."

Maxie looked back at the painting. It still seemed that same boring, not so appealing monochrome picture he'd seen before, but there was a little bit of a flair to it now. Archie's interpretation made sense for the most part. He smirked a small, amused smirk.

"I still think I prefer the historical figure portraits." Maxie said. "But I do see your point with this one."

"Ha! Glad ya see it my way." Maxie elbowed him and Archie chuckled. "Hey, speakin' of compromise, I've been thinkin' about what we should do next. How about…ice cream? Kalos has some pretty great ice cream."

Maxie thought about it for a moment.

"Are you paying for it?"

"Y'know what? Sure. I got this one." Archie said. "Ice cream's on me."

"Then ice cream it is." Maxie said. He looked at the audio guide in his hands, then at the painting, and then he started off toward the stairs. "We should get going now if we'd like to avoid the rush. I'd rather not be stuck waiting behind that tour group we encountered in the war exhibit."

"Yeah, yeah. Got it." Archie said. "Hey, what'd ya think about that one picture? The one with the guy who had too many frills and the random Mew?"

"If he was aiming for portraying his absolute power, he should have added a Groudon into the picture."

"Pff! Nah, it should have been a Kyogre for sure!"


End file.
